About the Professional Services Strategy, 2018-21
Developing the strategy
Our Professional Services Strategy was developed in 2017/18 following considerable engagement with our professional services and academic communities and, most crucially, with input from hundreds of colleagues via the Green Paper approach – a feedback mechanism that enabled all colleagues working here to share their thoughts on the draft strategy.
As a University, we have experience of anticipating external challenges, and meeting these challenges by being flexible and responsive. The higher education sector currently faces unprecedented uncertainties including Brexit, the Post-18 Education Funding review, and pensions to name a few headlines but, with a proactive plan in place, our excellent professional services team will be able to successfully respond to these external challenges, as well as delivering our institutional priorities, and in doing so we will deliver our vision to be recognised as the most effective and efficient in the UK’s higher education sector.
Aims of the strategy
The aims of the Professional Services Strategy will be delivered through three key areas of work:
We will use the University’s values of Ambition, Challenge, Collaboration, Community, Impact and Rigour to ensure all colleagues are able to share their ideas on how improvements can be made.
Outcomes of the strategy
Working together to deliver the Professional Services Strategy will ensure our professional services team:
- consistently provide an outstanding, high quality service, and that any changes and/or improvements are made in collaboration with our colleges, disciplines, academic colleagues and students; as well as being benchmarked against the best in the sector
- continually seek to be more resilient, efficient, effective, data led, agile, and well governed by ensuring the service being deliver is of a standard that other institutions aspire to
- use the combined talents of our professional services team to develop the highest levels of professional capability in creative and collaborative ways
- become one of the most efficient in the sector by delivering £7.5m of savings over the next four years on the £100m a year professional services budget, with £2.5m being re-invested back into professional services after three years. This will enable front line services to enhance our students’ and academics’ experience, as well as alleviating pressures in key areas.